By Omar Anderson, Gleaner WriterSHORTLY AFTER arriving at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday afternoon, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was whisked to a great house in Lydford, St. Ann, where he is expected to stay during his 10-week visit here.
At about 1:50 p.m. yesterday, a white private jet, N17KJ, landed on the airport's runway, with Mr. Aristide, his wife Mildred, aides, his lawyer Ira Kurzban, United States congresswoman Maxine Waters, and human rights activist Randall Robinson.
Huntley Medley, the former press secretary for Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who has been assigned Mr. Aristide's media liaison officer, told The Gleaner yesterday that Mr. Aristide was "in very good spirits."
"He thanked the Government and people of Jamaica for agreeing to his request to stay for a short time," Mr. Medley said. "He also thanked the Government of the Central African Republic for the hospitality there."
The Aristides' two children were not on the flight from Africa, and Medley said he was not aware when they would join their parents here.
HEAVY SECURITY AT AIRPORT
Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers, armed with M-16 rifles, policed the perimeter of the runway, while the former Haitian president, escorted by South Central St. Catherine Member of Parliament, Sharon Hay-Webster, met local officials including Delano Franklyn, State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and protocol officers at the same ministry.
Meanwhile, members of the local and foreign press occupied strategic positions at the airport yesterday, expecting to interview Mr. Aristide. However, only a handful of local photographers were allowed close-up view of the former president's arrival.
"Based on what was happening, the authorities had put certain security arrangements in place," Mr. Medley told The Gleaner. "I was notified that it wasn't possible for everybody to speak to him, we had to control the coverage."
SELECT PRESS GROUP
According to Mr. Medley, the best the authorities did in the circumstance was to allow selected members of the press, and the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), the Government's official press agency, to cover the event.
After spending just over 30 minutes on the runway, two JDF helicopters carried Mr. Aristide and his entourage to Lydford.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press report out of Port-au-Prince late yesterday said Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue withdrew his ambassador to Jamaica and suspended relations with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in protest over Mr. Aristide's arrival here.
